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Afghan soldier seeks asylum after arrest at US-Mexico border
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Photographs of Abdul Wasi Safi sit on a table as his brother, Sami-ullah Safi talks about his brother's journey to the U.S. during an interview Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023, in Houston. Abdul Wasi Safi was an intelligence officer with the Afghan National Security Forces, providing U.S. armed forces with information for operations against terrorists, said Sami-ulllah Safi. Wasi, as he is called by his family, was arrested after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass, Texas in September 2022, and charged with a federal misdemeanor related to wrongly entering the country and placed in a detention center in Central Texas. - photo by AP Photo/David J. Phillip
HOUSTON (AP) — Abdul Wasi Safi kept documents detailing his time as an Afghan soldier who worked with the U.S. military close to him as he made the monthslong, treacherous journey from Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border. He fled Afghanistan fearing retribution from the Taliban following the August 2021 American withdrawal, and hoped the paperwork would secure his asylum in the U.S. Despite thick jungles, raging rivers and beatings, he kept those documents safe.